Chicken Coop out of a Swing Set! Answers to Questions About My Chickens
I’m often asked various questions about my chickens so I thought I’d write a post answering all of the questions I usually get in hopes that it will prove helpful.
Where did you get your chickens?
I ordered my chickens from mypetchicken.com. I chose my breeds based on heat tolerance, reliable egg laying, and the color of their eggs. The website allows you to narrow your search based on pretty much anything you like. The chickens were shipped to me the day they hatched in a lined box with air holes and a heating pad. We picked them up from the post office the very next day and brought them home.
Where did you keep them when they were chicks?
They lived inside until they were fully feathered out, in a storage bin with litter material in the bottom and a heating lamp up on top.
What color are your chicken’s eggs?
Pictured are the colors of eggs I get from my hens. Egg color is dependent on species and individual birds. A little further in this post I will tell you the breeds and what color of egg each one lays.
How Many Eggs Do You Get Each Week?
Some of our chickens started laying at 4 months and they were all laying by 6 months (If I remember correctly) and we usually get 6 eggs every day, every now and then just five. Usually, the only time egg production is low is when the weather has been particularly miserable, which I can sympathize with. But most days, my refrigerator looks about like this. This is what happens when you get 3 1/2 dozen eggs per week. It’s a great problem to have and allows me to share eggs with neighbors. Note: I don’t wash my eggs until right before using them, if they are dirty. This helps them to stay fresh longer.
What Types Of Chickens Do You Have?
I have six chickens.
Their names are: Granny, Glammy, Red, Boss, Zeb, and Fluffy Bottoms.
The types of chickens I have are:
- 1 Rhode Island Red (Red) – light brown eggs
- 1 Barred Plymouth Rock (Zeb) – light brown eggs
- 1 Australorp (Boss) – light brown eggs
- 2 Easter Egger (Glammy and Granny) – One lays green eggs and the other blue
- 1 Golden Buff (Fluffy Bottoms) – dark brown eggs
What do they eat?
I feed my chickens pellet feed with a calcium supplement mixed in as well as a mix of dried corn, oats, nuts, and other seeds as scatter on the ground each day. All of my commercial feed is purchased from Tractor Supply and I usually buy 400-500 pounds of feed at a time so I only go two or three times a year at most. Pictured is 350 pounds. I shoot for more but if it’s been a long day I stop once I get tired of picking up 50 pound sacks. I would estimate they go through about $15 of feed a month. Most folks sell some eggs to cover the feed but that would require me leaving the house more than I already have to, so I just give eggs away to neighbors. I enjoy that more, anyway.
Every morning my chickens get a bowl of hot oatmeal and on pretty days I walk around the yard and fill up a basket with clover, grass, etc as a treat. They also love apples and kitchen scraps. As one friend put it when I first got chickens, “They are pretty much goats with beaks.”
What Type Of Enclosure Do You Have?
For their pen, we closed in the kid’s old swingset and made it into a large chicken coop.
And by “We” I mean my father in law and husband. But I’m sure they couldn’t have done it without my emotional support. 🙂
Nesting Boxes and Roosting Area
Two Lowe’s buckets are bolted down to the top of the slide area as nesting boxes and beneath what used to be the slide area we have an enclosed roosting space, with a wall in front of it to further block out the elements. The center of this wall is removable so that I can get in there and clean out the nesting area from time to time. The coop is enclosed on one end (sides and top) so only part of it is subject to rain, snow, and the like. However, in winter I enclose all sides with construction grade plastic (as pictured above) to block cold winter drafts, leaving only the end with the door as the area where fresh air can pass through.
Are Chickens A Lot Of Trouble?
Chickens are, by far, the easiest critter I’ve ever had. I give them fresh water, food, and scatter daily and check their eggs. From time to time I rake out all of the straw or pine needles and replace it with fresh. I do this every couple of months but even then it just makes me feel better and is not necessarily needed. (I use pine needles during warmer months because they are in abundance where I live). Other than gathering the eggs and bringing them treats, that is about it!
That covers most of the questions I can think of but if you have others feel free to leave them in the comments. I’m glad to help if I can!
Do you have problems with rats and other critters getting in your pin
I keep a pellet rifle at my desk, which overlooks the chicken coop. I had one possum that dug in but he’s with Jesus now. I’ve taken care of another possum or two and one big rat so far. I don’t see any of that as a big deal though – we are talking over the course of a year and it is in the outdoors so that’s normal. If I see a problem or hole dug in I just set a trap. As for mice, I had a few but once I started feeding chickens from a hanging feeder and that cut that out. I also make sure I just put enough food on the ground for them to eat in a day so there isn’t extra food around come nightfall.
“…he’s with Jesus now.” This just tickled me to no end. 🙂 You don’t have coyotes where you live? My stepkids mother tried to keep chickens but the coyotes got to them.
Do your chickens all get along? I’ve heard that they can fight or peck each other sometimes.
Also, I’ve always thought that the organic egg cartons that say free range and vegetarian fed can’t be correct 100% because from what I understand chickens love to eat bugs and if they are outside and find them they will eat them.
chicken hawks ?
We do have a lot of hawks where we live but our coop doesn’t have a way for them to get in. We took that into consideration when building it and made sure it was completely covered on the top.
Hi Christy,
Nice article as always..your postings are so meaningful in many ways. I feel like you, your Mom and family are part of my extended family. You are all loved.
I would like to know when your new book will be available and if you will be coming to Tampa or St. Pete on your tour? Also. are there any plans for a TV cooking show in the future?
With love,
Merilee in St. Pete
We also have chickens, only 4 though, and made their coop out of our swing set fort. Fun stuff! My question is do you make your own chicken scratch, the corn, oats, nets, etc., or do you buy it? I have just been using regular bird seed but interested in something better. Also, the oatmeal, why?
Hey! I mix some of it but I buy all the stuff at Tractor Supply. I was making them oats from Quaker at $7 plus tax for ten pounds but then found I can get a 50 lb bag of oats at tractor supply for $15! I buy bags of scratch (it’s called scratch on the bag) and pour it into large galvanized trash cans (the old fashioned kind) and stir in oats and calcium supplement, which is usually crushed oyster shells sold just for that purpose. Sometimes I buy a bag of just dried corn sometimes, I like to switch it up. I pour their pellet food in another big trash can. The lids fit tight on them so it keeps critters and such out and my food fresh. My feed is about $12-15 a bag and scratch is just the fun stuff I pour out each day in addition to that. Hens are always busy looking for food on the ground so it makes them happy to have something to find 🙂
I have found that when I go to tractor supply for feed rather than Walmart or such, I generally get twice as much food for the same amount of money.
This may sound ridiculous, but can you cook those cheap oats from Tractor Supply for your family?? (or are they only to feed animals for some reason?) definitely cheaper than grocery stores! Always looking to save on food for my crowd of 9 !! 😉
Thanks!
That doesn’t sound ridiculous at all to me because I have thought the same thing :). They are packaged in huge 50 pound sacks and technically for horses, but they are all natural and from what I have seen they are very clean. Personally, I wouldn’t have a problem with rinsing them and then cooking them. However, different folks are going to feel very different about that and I’m sure more than one person will read this comment with horror. 🙂 A lot of people in our country are so far removed from hunger that they would balk at things the rest of the world would consider a feast. I pray they have the blessing of remaining that far removed on one hand but on the other I wish for them the blessing of gratitude that can only come with an understanding of how good they truly have it.
All I know is that my grandmother would have gladly cooked them up and should the need arise one day and my family is hungry, I might just have me a surplus of oats that will come in handy! 🙂
Producer’s Pride Rolled Oats is nothing but clean, wholesome oats, rolled to crack the hull and improve digestibility. It is designed as an energy source for mature cattle, sheep, goats, and maintenance or lightly-worked horses on good quality forage and a vitamin/mineral supplement. Grains are low in potassium which is good for horses with HYPP needing low-potassium diets. Non-fortified.
This is what the Tractor Supply ad says about the rolled oats…and at only $18.49 for 50 lb., that is a HECK of a lot cheaper than even the store brand rolled oats. Now, it does go rancid if you don’t eat it fast enough, but you’re right, Christy…one never knows what the political climate will bring us & if one is hungry, then this IS a viable food source.
Laura, I love how you think and I appreciate you being here!! Hope to see you around as often as possible!
Christy, I am trying to get our hens to lay more. We have several hens who we believe are giving our neighbors their eggs which is fine and dandy. As I’m reading this about the oatmeal, I’m wondering, are you cooking it as you would for your family? Leaving out the butter, sugar ect…? Or are you saying you give them the oats with the corn and other grains? We have 50-62 hens that free range. We have about 25 of those hens who are old enough to be cranky about the weather and such who will not always give an egg every day.
Although I don’t have chickens anymore, I loved reading about yours. Makes me re-live some of my wonderful memories. Thank you!
Have you considered taking your eggs to Farmer’s Market? I pay $4.00 a dozen for fresh eggs and it smarts just a little when I see eggs at Aldi for $.99 a dozen. It would not only help you recover some of your costs but you would truly be blessing so many others.
We have really sweet neighbors who look after our chickens when we need to go on little trips so I make sure they are always set for eggs. The kids also enjoy giving them to friends and such so we just really enjoy giving them away. If I had more hens it might be worthwhile to sell but right now I only end up with an extra two dozen or so a week, enough to make neighbors happy. 🙂
Ever since you started posting about your chickens, I have wanted to get some too. This past weekend we bought 8 Rhode Island Red pullets!
They are currently living in a Rubbermaid tote in my living room and my kids love them! How do you know when they have fully feathered, so we can move them outside? Thank you for the inspiration and great info.
Renea
Oh yay! I’m so excited for you!! When they are fully feathered they will look like miniature adult chickens, but a bit more gangly ;). You’ll need to make sure it is warm consistently before putting them outside and I introduced mine a few hours a day to begin with. You’ll love this!
My neighbors just got a rooster as a pet. I love hearing him crow in the morning! Really, I do! He has the cutest trill to his cock-a-doodle-do. Now if I could just convince my husband to get some hens, or go in halfsies with them . . . . .
That sound just soothes my heart! We don’t have a rooster but my hens sure do cackle to announce they’ve laid! Do I need to call your husband? 😉